The Return of the Archons (episode)
The Enterprise discovers a planet ruled by a computer. Summary Lieutenants Sulu and O'Neil are dispatched to the surface of the planet Beta III to learn what became of the starship Archon, which disappeared there one hundred years earlier. Recognized as outsiders, they draw the attention of the lawgivers. Pursued, the officers call for beam-out, but only Sulu is retrieved, and he is in a strange mental state. Captain Kirk beams down with a larger landing party, to investigate. Spock, McCoy, sociologist Lindstrom, and two guards, Leslie and Galloway, form the balance of the landing party. Immediately, Spock notices a strangeness in the people they encounter; a kind of contented mindlessness. Then the red hour strikes -- the beginning of the Festival, a period of debauchery and lawlessness. Fleeing, the landing party bursts in on Reger, Hacom, and Tamar. Their questions seem to terrify Reger. Festival ends the next morning. Reger, learning the landing party did not attend Festival, concludes they are not of the Body, and asks an astonishing question: "Are you Archons?" The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of lawgivers, the robed servants of the mysterious Landru. The lawgivers command the landing party to accompany them, to be absorbed. Kirk, acting on a hunch, defies them -- and causes confusion. He'd correctly concluded this society is built around obedience, and might not be ready for disobedience. Taking advantage of their confusion, Reger guides the crew to a place he knows, where they will be safe. But on the way, Landru employs a form of mass telepathy to command an attack. Among the attackers is -- Lieutenant O'Neil. Reger warns against bringing him along, but Kirk cannot abandon a crew member. Spock discovers a source of immense power, radiating from a point near the landing party's location. Reger tells Kirk about the arrival of the first Archons: many were killed, many more were absorbed. And then he drops the bombshell, mentioning casually that Landru pulled the Archons from the sky... Kirk contacts the ''Enterprise'', and learns that heat beams are focused on the ship. Her shields are able to deflect them, but nearly all ship's power is diverted to this purpose. Communications are poor, escape is impossible, and the orbit is decaying. If Kirk can't put a stop to the beams, the ship will be destroyed. Worse, contacting the ship enables Landru to discover and stun the landing party. They awaken in a cave like cell, but McCoy, Galloway and O'Neil are missing. Then McCoy returns -- and he has been absorbed. Evidently, this is the fate that awaits the entire landing party. Lawgivers appear, demanding Kirk accompany them -- and this time, disobedience results in an immediate death threat. The orderly society has corrected a flaw. Kirk is taken to a futuristic room -- the absorption chamber. There, a priest named Marplon will oversee Kirk's forcible induction into the Body. Lawgivers summon Spock, who is taken to the same place, and there encounters Kirk, now mindlessly happy. Spock learns that Marplon is part of the same underground to which Reger belongs. Marplon intervened to prevent both Kirk and Spock from being absorbed, and returned their weapons. Spock, acting as instructed, makes his way back to the cell. Discussing Landru and his society, Kirk and Spock reach the same conclusion: the society has no spirit, no spark -- Landru's orders are being issued by a computer. Kirk decides the plug must be pulled; Spock is concerned this would violate the Prime Directive, but Kirk opines that the directive applies to living, growing cultures. When Reger and Marplon join them, Kirk demands more information: the location of Landru. Reger reveals that Beta III was at war, and was in danger of destroying itself. Landru, one of the leaders, took the people back to a simpler time. And, Marplon claims, Landru is still alive... Marplon takes Kirk and Spock to a chamber, the Hall of Audiences, where Landru appears to his acolytes -- or, at least, a projection of him does. There, Landru regretfully informs them that their interference is causing great harm, and that they, and all who knew of them, must be killed, to cleanse the memory of the Body. Blasting through the wall, Kirk reveals the truth -- an ancient machine, built and programmed by the real Landru 6,000 years earlier. This machine, now calling itself Landru, was entrusted with the care of the Body -- the society of Beta III. To that end, it has enslaved all members of that society, and those who visit, in a thralldom of happiness that is stagnant and without creativity. Kirk and Spock discuss this with Landru, asking it hard questions it has evidently never had to answer. Questions about whether its approach to creating the good is really creating evil. Ultimately, they convince it that it is the evil, and that it must destroy the evil ... and it does, exploding in a burst of pyrotechnics. Kirk leaves a team of specialists, including Lindstrom, to help restore the planet's culture "to a human form". Background Information * Bobby Clark, who leaps through a window and then cries out "Festival! Festival!" has his only speaking role in the series in this episode. A frequent stunt performer on the series, he can also be seen as one of Chekov's vaporized henchmen in Mirror, Mirror. * Watch the preview of this episode for a totally different take on the scene with Sulu and O'Neil in the teaser. * In the scene where Landru makes his first appearance, watch David L. Ross in the background. When the Landru image first manifests, Ross puts his hands up to his ears and quickly lowers them, apparently thinking for a few seconds that the "take" was going to be of the hypersonic knocking everyone out. In another, he can be seen behind William Shatner, casually standing with Eddie Paskey, expressing no interest in Landru's appearance. Ross did not seem to know he was on camera at the time. * There is an eerie shadow of a man attacking a woman projected onto one of the building walls during the evening portion of the Festival. * The sound of the clock chimes in the town is different in the DVD version of this episode than on the old video cassettes. A small piece of Scott's dialogue is also missing; when he is declaring that the Enterprise will "burn up, one way or the other", the words "burn up" cannot be heard. * Spock is seen sleeping with his eyes open in this episode. * According to the trivia section on the video release, the Archons was a club Gene Roddenberry belonged to at school. * This episode has the only teaser to fade out with a close-up on George Takei. * The cell in this episode will show up later in Errand of Mercy and Catspaw. * The location for this episode strongly resembles Culver City. Since Desilu owned the Culver sets in the mid-60s, this could very well be where it was shot. This location is now part of Universal Studios. Memorable Quotes Spock: How often mankind has wished for a world as peaceful, and secure, as the one Landru provided. Kirk: And we never got it. Just lucky, I guess.'' Nitpicks * A rock the size of a potato bounces off someone's head as the landing party flees Festival, but the person keeps on going. Links and References Main Cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Eddie Paskey as Leslie * David L. Ross as Galloway (Guard) Guest Stars * Harry Townes as Reger * Torin Thatcher as Marplon * Charles Macaulay as Landru * Christopher Held as Sociologist Lindstrom * Brioni Farrell as Tula * Sid Haig as First Lawgiver * Jon Lormer as Tamar * Morgan Farley as Hacom * Ralph Maurer as Bilar * Sean Morgan as O'Neil * Barbara Webber as Dancing Woman * Bob Clark as Shrieking Townsperson and stunt double for David L. Ross References 2267; absorption; [[USS Archon|USS Archon]]; Archons; Beta III; C-111 system; Festival; Hall of Audiences; Lawgiver; Prime Directive; Red hour; The Valley. Return of the Archons, The de:Landru und die Ewigkeit nl:The Return of the Archons